SPS tissue issue

7237689918 · Oct 12, 2019

Is the thought that GFO in general causes SPS issues or that it can remove too much PO4 if not watched closely? In other words, if you run GFO and it gets you to the range you want is it still an issue?

speedstar · Oct 12, 2019

BusyB said:
I had a similar issue a few months back with my monti's not doing so great and some of my sticks loosing color. To make a long story short. I sent in a water sample to Triton and learned that i had high Aluminum levels in my tank. After some research I ended removing the biological ceramic spheres that i put in my sump a few months back. It's been about 2 months now and my tank has been doing great again.

Thanks for this info, as I do run the smal ceramic cubes aince starting the tank, did yours break down over time or have issue right away?

BusyB · Oct 12, 2019

speedstar said:
Thanks for this info, as I do run the smal ceramic cubes aince starting the tank, did yours break down over time or have issue right away?

O boy, get ride of those darn things. It took about 6 - 8 months after I put them in before I noticed my corals not doing well. Almost instantly after removing them and flushing my tank out with multiple water changes, my tank turned around. I will never use ceramic anything in my tanks again.

SeaDweller · Oct 12, 2019

Zerobytes said:
Is the thought that GFO in general causes SPS issues or that it can remove too much PO4 if not watched closely? In other words, if you run GFO and it gets you to the range you want is it still an issue?

Running GFO in itself doesn't cause an issue, it's when it's used to get 0.00 PO4 or strips the water column too quickly that could lead to issues. It really comes down to being in tune intimately with your tank; like say 0.xx ppm PO4 and all is good, then you want to maintain that; but you'll know when it's excess, and not having any PO4 is absolutely bad for the corals

Nicholas Dushynsky · Oct 12, 2019

I lost all my monti due to 0 phosphates. I never use gfo and only fed lightly. My corals used it all up and died as a result. I am now dosing phosphates and the corals are growing from the surviving polyps.

SeaDweller · Oct 12, 2019

Nicholas Dushynsky said:
I lost all my monti due to 0 phosphates. I never use gfo and only fed lightly. My corals used it all up and died as a result. I am now dosing phosphates and the corals are growing from the surviving polyps.

why not feed more to the tank? free dosing.

Nicholas Dushynsky · Oct 12, 2019

SeaDweller said:
why not feed more to the tank? free dosing.

I feed more. But my tank is only 90litres so about 23 us gallons. I have 2 clowns and a yellow watchman goby with shrimp, 3 hermits and 1 nassarius snail that is it. If I feed too much my nitrates go up.
The phosphate is getting consumed faster than adding just food was rasing so I have been dosing monopotassium phosphate.

as a diy mix and it is cheap so not worried about dosing as its actually cheaper than the food. I have been dosing 1ml per day for 3.5 weeks so far, I tested yesterday and it is only showing about 0.01 (salifert) and my coral is showing better colour and growth on my once dead monti.
I went from this a year ago